Signature Fitness — Local services in Belleville

As someone who has been here for a little over a year and completed my contract, I feel that I am more then qualified to write an in-depth review about this gym. I currently have the "Performance membership", which is the most expensive membership they have, clocking in at $120 plus tax every month. this includes full 24/7 access to both the main facility and the Strength and conditioning center (aka the "S+C Center" or the "powerlifting room" to some)

First off, this gym is massive, probably the largest I have ever been in, which is about 55,000 square feet with tons of equipment. It also includes a shake bar, meal prep fridge, tanning, sauna, locker rooms and around 180 parking spots. Although this is all nice and dandy, my focus will be in the strength and conditioning center, which is where I spend most of my time in, and the reason I signed up for the most expensive membership in the first place.

When I first came in over a year ago, the room had everything I wanted which included deadlift platforms, power and competition combo racks, monolifts, turf, pound and calibrated plates, all sorts of bars and accessory equipment. they have since then added to this list, which is nice, but with it came other additions which have since taken away from the nice experience. First and most notably, personal training and the CrossFit classes inside the facility. Almost every night, in an already busy gym, I just want to come in, train and leave. However, a lot of times I cant use the turf or sometimes some of the racks because it is being blocked off by the CrossFit instructors for over an hour. Although this is an annoyance I have just simply ignored, Thiers more.

Most of the members in here respect and take care of the gym and pick up after themselves, which includes but not limited to: Re-racking weights, bars and other equipment, as well as removing chalk from barbells and putting the clips back in the front hangers where they belong. However, some members have the opposite attitude, which should be unacceptable to both management and the staff who already work hard enough to keep the place organized. Despite complaints from other members and myself as well as posts on social media, no enforcement of the rules towards these members has been attempted. So even to this day, almost every night the place is a disorganized mess with bars on the floor, chalk and clips EVERYWHERE, plates, dumbbells out of place and even rack safeties being removed and not being put back. I always clean up after myself and respect the equipment. And before you ask, it is even worse in the main part of the gym.

The bottom line is, for the price that myself and other members are paying, we would expect to have a room that should be reserved for performance members and ONLY these members, and rules that are posted should be followed by all who are in here. Their are other things that I have not mentioned because this review would be way longer then it is already. I myself have worked in the fitness industry for close to 7 years, all sorts of positions, So I kept the perspective of the gym staff in mind as well. if you do not believe what I have written out, I suggest you come by and see for yourself.

I give this place 3 stars because they have everything I want/need to reach my goals, its 24/7 access for all members, the shake bar is good and the staff, for the most part are friendly and approachable. I took away 2 stars for the reasons...

Good luck finding parking, a locker, or the machines you wanna use from 3pm to 8pm. You will constantly encounter “extremely muscular” guys who will claim they were using the machine you’re using like 5 minutes after you grabbed it and they were nowhere near it. Then they wanna act tough so that you give it up. They use several machines at the same time like if this was their personal gym, sometimes leaving a bottle of water, a bag (there used to be a no bag rule on the gym floor to combat this but they did away with that rule because of all the bodybuilders that go to this gym) or something to hold machines while they use another.. They recently hired one of these guys on their staff. I’ve literally seen this guy pick fights on the gym floor for machines he wasn’t using and once saw him walk right through 2 guys and a girl, bumping into each one although they were not in his way and he could’ve easily walked by them. I know for a fact that Tina (owner) was made aware of this guy so that she would warn him about this behavior but her solution was to hire him. They want you to use their trainers but they end up harassing people who are legitimately helping friends and family yet don’t say anything to the “extremely strong” guys who ARE training people but don’t work there. Some machines have been broken for many months or more than a year so I don’t understand why they also charge a large annual maintenance fee. Many lockers are occupied by a single item like a hoodie. If there were hooks on the walls of the locker room, people can hang those up instead of taking up a locker since those people aren’t using a lock anyway. There are many people who wanna work on their glutes but there is only 1 viable machine for that. The one by the back entrance (although they don’t actually use that door as an entrance) is the good one. They have another one in the middle of the track area but nobody uses it because it works your hamstrings more than your glutes. You would think they would have a few of the good one on hand considering glute building has become so popular. Most people resort to taking up a smith machine for this which means people now have less smith machines for squatting. There are a lot of machines that go unused. They need to figure out which ones these are and replace them with more frequently used equipment such as smith machines, flat and incline benches for bench pressing which seems to be the most popular especially on Mondays. 2 or 3 incline benches isn’t gonna cut it. They need to do something with all the money they’re making to add more workout space and parking. I’ve seen suggestions such as building a second floor, buy the old Kmart land and build a second gym (or anywhere else in the area) or put all the lower body equipment over there. Not sure how feasible any of this is but they have to do something. Unless you can make it at night, at 4am-5am or during working/school hours…may the odds be ever...

Seems like a phenomenal gym ( I haven't explored the entire gym yet when it comes down to machines wise),

Love that they have a Sauna & Steam Room (both walk-in rooms which are not a little catapult bs).

Shoutout to the famous Nautilus machines like the Pullover Machine for Back & the Chest Peck Fly & Bench Press machines from the Mike Mentzer/Arnold/Haney era 🔥 which is dope.

Moreover, smooth cardio machines, especially elliptical machines & StairMaster masters which are my go-to always to add on for my 10k steps a day.

Leg Day is my favorite day and so the amount of leg machines are pretty dope as well like the Hip-Press machine which is hard to find, to the OG Vertical Leg Press, ton and ton of Powerlifting Squadracks!, old school donkey calf Raise machine and regular standing calf raise machines 👏 (awesome for that).

I haven't done Chest Day at Signature, but I peeked at the Chest variations section, and they look good.

Nevertheless, the Juice Bar is amazing, with quality drinks and mildly sweet, which is great 👍.

So far, the staff that I have met like Steve, great guys. Great atmosphere and energy that I get from this place.

I'm wondering if I will join this gym any time soon since I have been trying to test out a 7pm+ time-frame because... reasons for my 3.5 stars is due to the fact that PARKING seems nightmarish so far at this facility.

Even if I try to find parking around the block? It's really nightmarish.

I'm the type that I avoid in all sense of the sentiment that if a place does not have reliable parking? I'm truly not interested, EVEN IF it's a CHURCH or Restaurant, I wouldn't bother at all.

But because of the old school machines here, like the Nautilus Pullover Machine and the variations of Leg machines and the energy of the staff and people here? It's hard to say no.

But really, parking at Signature Fitness is a disaster (Donald Trump voice).

Truly love the sauna, the steam room, the gym etiquette of the members (which can get better in my opinion), and the juice bar and so forth. It's a phenomenal gym. It truly is.

BUT!!!!!!!!

FOR GOODNESS SAKE! THE PARKING IS A WARZONE! 🤣🤣🤣 I CANT!!! I CANT.

Specially when you work 12hrs+ 5x a week, go to college, and train HIT?

MY mans!!! This parking got to evolve at some point.

Overall, it's a great gym so far. I'll try a day pass to get more of a closer look at the machines & weights because it's a 50k square ft place.

No One day will cut it off, I've been here 3 days religiously, and parking has been in the bad grade zone...